The Emergency Communications Center (ECC) is responsible for receiving and dispatching all fire, medical and rescue calls within the 8,000 square miles of Kern County. ECC receives transferred calls from 17 different law enforcement agencies and gives calls to 3 different private ambulance companies. Our annual call volume entered for 2016 was 108,945 calls.

ECC’s current staffing includes 22 full time dispatchers, 6 supervisors, 1 manager & 2 duty officers. During fire season 1 additional duty officer and 2 additional extra-help positions were added to assist with the wildland resource ordering. Our daily staffing consists of 1 supervisor and 4 dispatchers per shift. Each rotation also has 1 dispatcher to work a swing shift to provide additional coverage during our 12 busiest hours.

In 2016 the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) has been continuing its efforts both short and long term, in developing and maintaining a state-of –the-art communications center for the citizens we serve, our fire departments and our dispatch staff.

We completed the final phase of our multi-year project to move our dispatch center into a re-purposed server facility. In June of 2014 ECC moved into the re-modeled Verizon Building at 2601 Panorama Dr., Bldg C. In the final six months of 2014 new dispatch consoles and a Next Gen ready 9-1-1 system were installed. On March 16, 2015 a successful cut over from the Intergraph CAD system to the New World Systems Enterprise CAD was accomplished. This was the final phase of our upgrade to Next Generation 9-1-1 compliant dispatch technology at ECC. This new CAD system allows our dispatchers to make better real-time decisions during emergency incidents for resource management, tracking and reporting. In January 2017 ECC went live with the Priority Dispatch Systems, Emergency Fire Dispatch Protocols. These protocols function in the same manner as our EMD Protocol’s which have been in use at ECC since 1989. With the addition of EFD our staff are now certified in both medical and fire call taking by the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch. The new Fire Protocols will allow our dispatchers to obtain better scene safety information on all fire incidents reported via 911 for both our citizens and our first responders. These protocols also provide lifesaving pre-arrival instructions for callers in high risk situations such as being trapped in a burning building, trapped in a sinking vehicle or in a vehicle being swept away by flood waters. Our dispatchers put the last situation to the test just days after completing the training when Kern County was inundated by rain that caused over 100 vehicles to be caught up in a mud slide on the 58 Hwy.

Staffing during 2016 made improvements due to our efforts in trainee retention after successfully certifying ten senior dispatchers as Certified Training Officers. Our training program and manual were evaluated and updated to conform to APCO P33 standards and our success rate in training new dispatchers rose from 25% to 75/100% success rates with our Training Academies in 2016 and we certified 2 additional CTO’s in January. . ECC has used the IAED Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Protocols since 1989. In 1999 we became the 77th Center in the World (10th in California) to achieve Accreditation as a Center of Excellence with the Academy. This Accreditation requires our dispatchers to perform at a consistently high compliance to protocol. Our full time EMD Quality Improvement/Assurance Coordinator reviews 3% of all calls to ensure adherence to policy and protocol. This level of commitment from both the agency and staff ensure our stakeholders receive the highest level of care when calling ECC for a medical emergency. Each center must submit documentation attesting to our continued compliance with Academy standards every three years.

ECC is responsible for receiving and dispatching all fire, medical and rescue calls within the 8,000 square miles of Kern County. ECC receives transferred calls from 17 different law enforcement agencies and relays calls to 3 different private ambulance companies. Our annual call volume for calls entered for service in 2016 was 108,945 calls. Our total call volume for calls for service, requests, information etc. was 394,170 calls. This represents a 9.5% increase in call volume from 2015 to 2016. ECC Dispatchers also provided lifesaving CPR instructions resulting in 22 lives being saved and assisted with bringing 12 new citizens of Kern County into the world.

Fire Season again proved busy for ECC and our Expanded Dispatch staff which included 1 Duty Chief, 1 Duty Officer (Captain) and 2 extra-help employees. They provide support during large wildland incidents both in and out of Kern County. Their hard work and dedication allow the dispatchers at ECC to quickly transition from the initial calls and dispatch of a wildland incident to getting back to the job of 911.

We were pleased to honor Zachary Regan as the Fire Department’s Dispatcher of the Year. Roxanne Routh was the Fire Department’s EMD of the Year.

On May 20th ECC had 2 new Fire Dispatchers receive their badges. Congratulations to Anthony Padworski & Misty Thomas-Roberts.

On June 23rd Kern County experienced the worst fire in our history. The Erskine Fire in the area of Erskine Creek on the Eastern portion of Kern County it burned over 48,000 acres, 300 structures were lost and sadly resulted in 2 fatalities. On the day of this fire ECC handled 1,456 calls in a 24 hour period.

The 4th of July holiday was again one of our busiest weekend of the year. The Fireworks Task Force and Hotline were again operational on the nights of the July 3rd and 4th. The totals for calls received for illegal fireworks were: • 932 Calls Taken by the Fireworks Task Force • 180 Calls Taken by ECC

On July 27th we received 41 calls from residents in the Southlake area reporting that “The sky was falling”, when debris from a meteor entering our atmosphere started a brush and structure fire.

We are all truly proud to be a part of the Kern County Fire Department and are committed and dedicated to assisting with meeting its mission by continually evaluating our training, programs and services and implementing changes that will empower our employees to provide excellent service to our citizens and public safety first responders.